"How do you make your ugly Christmas sweaters?" That's a question we get asked a lot, so we wanted to take you behind the scenes to show you how we go from initial concept to fully produced Christmas sweater. Today we're going to be looking at Polar Beer.

Concept

We love Polar Bears. They’re a cute, popular winter animal that, thanks to things like the Coca-Cola Polar Bear, already feel very Christmas-y. Drinking and beer are also really popular elements to include on our Christmas sweaters. We decided to put polar bears and beer together for a design we originally called Chillin’ Out.

We loved the idea of a Polar Bear hanging out in a cold arctic pool the same way we would hang out in a jacuzzi during the winter.

Sketch

The first step in the design process is to create a sketch. This way we can make adjustments before we get too far down the road. In the case of Polar Beer, the initial sketch looked like this:

The first draft is pretty basic, but let us know right away that we were on the right track.

Front Panel Design

After sketching, we move on to a full design for the front panel. This means that everything gets fully drawn out, colored in, text and texture added. First the front panel design looked like this:

We started second guessing the Chillin’ Out title.

Polling

Sometimes we like to turn to a close group of friends and family to get their opinions or help us make a decision. We sent out a poll if they liked Chillin’ Out, Polar Beer, or no captions at all.

They significantly preferred Polar Beer, because like us, they can’t resist a good pun.

Finalized Design

Once we've finished the front panel, we need to design the sleeves and the back of the sweater. We designed the sleeves to repeat the pattern of the snowflakes at the top of the front panel as well as the beer bottles that the polar bear is enjoying.

Once we have these elements, we put everything together for a finished design.

And there you have it! That's the story behind our Polar Beer sweater.